Blog

Well, I have been nominated by the other three to give those at home a little Peru ISA world championships update, so here goes.

So we got onto town after a very long day of travel about 2 a.m. Sunday morning. We woke up to bright sunshine in our eyes at about 6 a.m., and headed to the event registration downtown Miraflores.

After registration the event officially opened with the parade of nations, 17 different countries walking around the town with their country's flag. The opening ceremonies ended with the “Sands of the World”, where each representing country pours into a large bowl a cup of sand that was brought from their home country. Colin and I were introduced on stage, and we poured San Clemente beach sand and combined it with the other countries, kinda cool.

After the opening ceremonies, we all headed to Pampilla Beach for an afternoon of some fun day SUP surfing and sizing up the competition. Day 2, Monday, was basically a free day of surfing, except I had to go to a press conference with a bunch of Peruvian leaders, politicians and Jamie Mitchell. I was a bit awkward, but cool. I think I impressed them with all my answers in Spanish, or they think I am a complete dufus.

Today, the good stuff began. Colin was the first to surf, in a heat that could have been a final with Jackson Close from Australia, and Fernando Stella from Mexico. Colin was the first to catch a wave, and fell early, but from then on out he had awesome wave selection and long rights, with lots and lots of maneuvers and eventually we on to win! This would be the theme for the day, as Sean Pointer would also fall on his first wave but finish first in his heat, defeating Australian Hobie team member Justin Holland on his last wave and coming out first. Emmy Merrill would continue team USA 's winning streak with a first place finish over Australian Hobie team rider Shakira Westdorp. Emmy surfed Awesome!!! She scored an 8.5 on her second to last wave, leaving the competition in the dust! Tomorrow, more surfing and Gillian competes in the short course prone race.